Target Audience (such as primary school teachers, high school administrators, students, etc.):

Middle and high school teachers and administrators

Short Session Description (one line):

Discussing best practices and lessons learned from our Red-Blue exchange, in which we connected over 6000 students in 25 states to discuss election-year issues.

Full Session Description (one paragraph minimum):

PenPal News is a web app that connects middle and high schoolers around the world to have meaningful conversations about real-world issues.

This fall, we connected thousands of students in 25 states to discuss election-year issues like the economy, immigration and health care. (Edutopia wrote an article about it.) We'll be continuing this program throughout the school year. Teachers can sign up at www.penpalnews.com.

Our session will focus on lessons learned from our exchange as well as a Q & A with teachers about what they see as best practices for facilitating connections between classrooms.